For the first time a parliament in Europe took the decision to approve a motion which prohibits the funding of NGO’s inciting to terror, hatred and anti-Semitism.

The National Council in Switzerland– which is the lower chamber of the country’s parliament – passed a motion to prevent the state from "financing any organization which supports racism, anti-Semitism, or the BDS." BDS is the anti-Israel Boycott,Divestment, Sanctions movement.

Switzerland is a federal republic. The federal legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the Federal Assembly, the National Council and the Council of States. The Federal Council holds the executive power and is composed by seven power-sharing Federal Councillors elected by the Federal Assembly.

The approved motion will be submitted in May to the Council of States, the upper chamber of the parliament, which will decide whether it becomes law.

The vote, 111 in favor of the motion against 78 and 4 abstentions, marks the first time any European parliament acknowledges moral equivalence or correlation between anti-Semitism and the BDS movement, despite the opposition of Swiss Foreign Minister Dirk Burkhalter, who encouraged the parliament to reject the motion, claiming that "it is Switzerland's right to encourage public discussion in Israel."

The minister, who is generally considered as being pro-Palestinian, referred to the organization Breaking the Silence as an example, claiming that the group is "a thorn in the eye of the Israeli government, because it reports the horrors of the occupation."

The approved motion was proposed by Christian Imark, a MP fom the right-wing Swiss People’s Party.

He argued that the Swiss foreign ministry supports groups that “demand boycotts of and sanctions against Israel and engage in anti-Israel incitement, lawfare as well as campaigns of anti-Zionism and racism, which call for the destruction of Israel and sometimes even have direct connections to terrorist organizations.”

He cited in that context Israeli and Palestinian NGOs such as Al-Haq, Adalah and Breaking the Silence